SUMMIT WASH-OUT SERIOUS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 104, 3 May 1926, Page 10

SUMMIT WASH-OUT SERIOUS

WORST IN ITS HISTORY

TUNNEL A RIVER OF MUD.

Reports from the Railway authorities show that Friday's wash-out at the Summit was the worst in the records of the Summit Station. A gang of 40 men has since been continuously at work under the Engineer's Department of the Eailways, and it is hoped to establish through communication by 6 o'clock this evening. This means a quick and very creditable piece of forc-ed-pace work. There were two falls of earth in the Summit Station yard, and a quantity of earth and gravel covered the whole of the yard, including the permanent way, to a depth of from a foot to three feet, as a large amount of loose material was washed down from the surrounding hillsides. The outlet for the floodwater, mud, and gravel, lay through the first tunnel to the north of the station yard, which at the height of the innundation was a river of water and mud several feet in depth. The washout at the damaged culverts was 30 feet deep and 60 feet long. Goods traffic was diverted via Palmerston North and Woodville.